Optoelectronic components often contain reflective structures in order to increase the efficiency of the optoelectronic component. By way of example, electromagnetic radiation emitted by an active layer of the component in the direction of an opaque carrier can be deflected by the reflective structure in a desired emission direction of the optoelectronic component.
In order to reflect the greatest possible proportion of the electromagnetic radiation, the reflective structures are often shaped from materials which have a high reflectance for the wavelength range of the electromagnetic radiation that is emitted or to be detected by the optoelectronic component. In this case, there is generally the problem that some materials having particularly good reflective properties, such as silver or gold, for example, wet the semiconductor material of the optoelectronic component only poorly. Furthermore, the reflective materials may have only a low adhesion on the semiconductor material. Although the adhesion of the reflective structure to the semiconductor material of the optoelectronic component can be improved by heat treatment processes, material defects, such as holes or cracks, for example, can arise in the reflective structure as a result. Such material defects—referred to hereinafter as holes for simplification—can adversely affect the quality and/or the function of the reflective structure. This applies particularly to holes that completely penetrate through the reflective structure in the vertical direction, that is to say parallel to the growth direction of the layer sequence.
Consequently, one object is to prevent or at least limit the formation of holes in the reflective structure. In particular, the intention is to provide an optoelectronic component without holes in the reflective structure that adversely affect the function and/or the quality. Furthermore, the intention is to specify a method for producing a corresponding optoelectronic component.